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Further Reading

After hearing that Sony's PS4 sold "nearly double" the units of Microsoft's Xbox One in the US in January, we considered the news "a strong indicator that the PS4 is striking more of a chord with console buyers." That indicator seems a bit weaker a month later, as NPD reports US Xbox One sales for February were "over 90 percent of what the PS4 sold in terms of unit sales."

That's a ratio that's much more in line with a competitive fight (in this country if not necessarily worldwide) rather than the beginning of a period of utter sales dominance by the PS4. NPD also notes that because of the Xbox One's higher sales price, more consumer dollars actually went toward Microsoft's latest console hardware than Sony's in February.

Microsoft says it sold 258,000 Xbox One units in the US in February, suggesting PS4 sales of at most 286,000 for the month. Those numbers indicate continuing healthy interest in both new consoles at this point in their retail lives; the Xbox 360 sold only 161,000 units in its first February on the US market, while the PS3 sold 127,000 US units in February 2007.

The Wii U, for its part, sold about 82,000 units in the US last month. That's up 25 percent from the year before, but it's still way below the level Nintendo's console needs to achieve a significant market presence. For context, the Xbox 360 managed to sell 114,000 units in the US in February, its 100th month on the US market, beating a Wii U that's only 17 months old.

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Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl